Man in court over Edelsten apartment burglary

Mark Russell

A man has appeared briefly in court charged with robbing the Melbourne apartment of high-profile celebrity couple Geoffrey and Brynne Edelsten.

Dane Dickens, of Carrum, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday after being charged on summons with burglary, drug possession and obtaining property by deception.

Magistrate Franz Holzer agreed to adjourn the case to February 20.

Police claim more than $100,000 worth of jewellery, credit cards, laptops and luggage was stolen from the Edelstens' CBD apartment in May.

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Mr Dickens was arrested in October and charged over the burglary.

He allegedly obtained information about the couple from a stolen laptop and spent more than $10,000 on the stolen credit cards.

It was the second time the couple, who have since separated, had allegedly been robbed after thieves drove off with three luxury cars worth $1.4 million in June 2012.

The expensive cars included a Lamborghini Aventador valued at around $800,000, a dark blue Mercedes-Benz SLS Gullwing worth $500,000 and a black BMW 335i owned by Brynne.

The thieves were thought to have entered the security car park at the Exhibition Street apartment block where the couple had lived while Mr Edelsten was interstate.

It was revealed early this month that Brynne Edelsten, who is 40 years younger than the 70-year-old Mr Edelsten, had ended the couple's four-year marriage, telling friends she was unable to forgive her husband for a reported dalliance with another woman more than 18 months ago.

Brynne's publicist, John Scott, confirmed the couple had separated and were still negotiating a settlement.

News of the separation came after Mr Edelsten filed for bankruptcy in the United States on January 9, one day before a hearing in the long-running legal battle against his former US business partners, the Mawardi family.

Mr Edelsten and the Mawardis had been fighting for control of assets that included a fashion label, a Dominican Republic casino, a luxury jet and two slum housing complexes.

In the federal bankruptcy petition, Mr Edelsten said he had debts of $18.2 million. He claimed he was worth between $US10 million and $US50 million.

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